The Results are In!... it's Sandy Clay Loam

Yesterday was an exciting day as my soil analysis came back from the Royal Horticultural Society.

First I should note why I'm even bothering with all of this soil stuff. One of my favourite books for my veg patch is the River Cottage Handbook No.4 - Veg Patch. It says

"It's not you that grows the plants, it's the soil. Your primary job is to care for the soil and it will (for the most part) look after the plants"

I also think that preparing the patch fully is something that I'm only going to do once - hence the time investment in double-digging and finding out about the soil. So, on with the analysis...

Soil texture - Sandy Clay Loam
Organic Matter - medium
Soil pH - 7.2
Phosphorus - high
Potassium - medium
Magnesium - medium

So in general pretty good.

I knew it was a clay soil before the report came back as after the first 20cm or so it's been thick compacted clay - but that's also the idea about breaking it up.

As far as veg are concerned - while there was a moderate amount of organic matter in the soil, further applications of organic matter are recommended to increase the fertility. After having spoken to Phil, and Donna (while I was away) I was going to mix in some manure and chicken manure at the start anyway. I'm going to do this as "base dressing" - which is incorporating it to root depth (as opposed to "top dressing" which is just applying to the soil surface), which I hope will make the soil organically rich for many years to come.

My pH is 7.2 - very slightly alkaline (0 - extremely acidic, 14 - extremelyalkaline). I think some plants prefer less (about 6.5), but it wasn't high enough to require lime. My phosphorus content is fine, and potassium and magnesium are adequate. I'm planning on using a liquid fertiliser while things grow anyway, but it's good to know that I don't need to do anything specific.

The report finished by recommending Growmore (NPK* 7-7-7) as a fertiliser as it gives a balance, and I don't require any extras specifically. [*Nitrogen, Phosophorus, Potassium]


Back in my River Cottage Handbook it says that clay soils have excellent reserves of nutrients, and that you need to free them up by getting air and fibre into the mix and incorporating organic matter helps. Which is what I'm planning. And it also warns "avoid (at all costs) damaging the soil structure through compaction by walking on it while it's wet". This I've been trying to do while digging - it's back-breaking at times, but good to know that's worth it as well.

So, on with the digging - and time to get some manures... (whoo hoo!)